Rainy Day Sewing & a "New" Flying Geese Technique

The sun is shining now but this was the view
out the sewing room window yesterday...


It's been the view a lot lately.
Gutters gushing with rain water.


 (I love clematis--and it loves rain!)

And that's just fine by me.
The garden can grow without my help
and I can work in the sewing room.
Which is why I'm not taking the time even to edit pics. 

After the mending & laundry (priorities!)
I settled in.


  Three new cozies to replace my winter-themed
ones.  The brown one is simple so that the dh
won't mind using it when we're out for coffee.
  

And this one because I like to keep several
handy--one in purse, one in car & one at home.



And, I needed to replenish my biz card holders 
for my shop after selling a couple last week.


Now, onto this "new" flying geese technique.
These are quickie-directions, assuming a general
piecing/quilting knowledge.


This is from the Schnibbles pattern.  Though I'm
going to share the measurements for the geese,
I'm not giving out any directions for this
quilt so I should be ok...right?

I made a flying geese quilt years ago for my
dh that really suprised me. 
Unimpressed with them before, I grew to love them.
Fun and scrappy.  And fast.  So I made two!
But the technique was pretty wasteful with fabric. 

The pattern calls this the "old-fashioned" way.
I didn't quite "get" it so before cutting away, I made up
one quickly and lo, behold--you make 4 at once
with no waste!  Maybe this is only new to me
but I'm going to share how it's done just in case
someone out there hasn't seen it.


Here you start out with a 4 1/4" X 4 1/4" square.
The background squares are 2 3/8" X 2 3/8"
with a diagonal line marked in pencil through
the center.  Place as shown in pic, right sides
together and stitch 1/4" on each side of the marked line.



Cutting on the line and then pressing toward
the larger triangle/darker fabric, you'll be left with
these odd-looking pieces...which is what originally
"threw" me but, with a little "hands on",
I started seeing where it was going. 

And I apparently got excited about getting it
(Well, really, I think I was contemplating on how someone actually
came up with this...which is why I am no pattern designer.   I am quite
 happy to follow other's directions.  I was never real big on geometry!)
because forgot to take pics so I had to make
another one for these next 2 pics. 


 Now place two more background squares on top
and repeat the sewing of 1/4" to each side of your
pencil line--which I hope you can see up there.


Here they are sewn, and one cut.


All four of the first set cut up,
ready to press open.



Pressed and done.


Sigh.  Three are correct,
and then this one is uneven on the top. 
But, that's what practice is for.

And so I leave you with my words of advice:
always make a practice run before you cut out 
hundreds of pieces.  I'm just one of those
people that has to understand what I'm
doing before I start snipping away at a
limited supply of fabric! 

So, what do you think?  Is this new to you?
Or is this how you've always done it?

I have a large flock of geese to make so...
happy sewing!

Comments

Debbie said…
Beautiful clematis....one of my favorites, too. I've done geese a lot of ways. This one is probably the least wasteful and easiest one. Great for scraps and precuts. If I have large enough pieces of fabric to work with, I also like to do the technique used by Eleanor Burns...very accurate.
This is going to be a cute quilt with all those geese.
Katy Cameron said…
Huh, never even seen this method before, I think I could embrace it. I do hate precise piecing though - ugh!
annemarie said…
This is a new method for me and I find it quite fascinating! I agree with you - how do people come up with these ideas - not me - I have to have directions and then I follow them exactly. It sounds like all your rain is heading south - we need it though - we are supposed to get major rain Sunday and Monday. Hope you have a great weekend.
I've heard of this method, but, I've never seen it before. Thanks. I've only used geese in one quilt so far, and, what a pain to sew and trim all of them (over 200).